The Marauder Legacy
by FFabeonG
Summary: When James Sirius Potter comes across a seemingly blank piece of parchment, he doesn't realise what he's found. Time for Uncle George to fill in the blanks...


"James!" My dad yelled and I jumped, whipping round to check he wasn't at the door. "What are you doing?"

"I'm in the garden, Dad!" I yelled back, lying expertly. In actual fact, I was in his office, where I've never been allowed. No reply came, so I turned back to Dad's cluttered and messy desk, which Mum is always complaining about; but I guess being head of the Auror office at the Ministry for Magic does mean he gets a lot of work to do. Lot of the stuff on his desk was just forms and boring work papers, but right in the middle, and on it's own, was a blank piece of parchment. It was one of those that you could fold out, but there was nothing on the inside either. I turned it over. Nothing. Held it up to the light. Still nothing! So why would Dad have it centre-space of his desk if it's just a scrap of parchment? Suddenly, I hear Mum calling me, and she sounded annoyed so I quickly shoved the parchment into my pocket and hurried to the kitchen, making sure to shut the office door behind me.

"Honestly James, where've you been?" Mum scolded. Albus was already peeling potatoes and Lily was setting the table, for more than our family, it seemed.

"What's going on?" I asked, confused. Mum rolled her eyes.

"Did you forget that the family are coming over tonight?" she said.

"I'm seriously hoping you mean _some_ of the family, not all..." I replied, eyes wide.

"James!" Lily sounded half amused and half horrified by my tone of voice.

"There's no need to sound so worried, young man." Mum frowns at me, not impressed. "And it's only Uncle Ron and Auntie Hermione with Hugo, as well as Uncle George."

"Is Fred coming?" I asked eagerly.

"Unfortunately not." Mum turned back to the cooking "Fred and Roxanne are both on a weekend away to see Aunt Angelina's family."

"Why didn't Uncle George go with them?" Albus asked, not being the smartest chip on the block.

"He's got shop to run, bright spark." I told him as I got the knives, forks and spoons at lay on the table alongside the plates.

"Don't be rude, James." Mum scolded me, but suddenly there was a loud crack from outside. "Oh Merlin's beard, they're here already?!" Mum exclaimed and rushed us outside as Dad appeared to greet his old friends.

"Hey kids." Uncle Ron grinned as Lily and Hugo vanished into the garden.

"Hugo!" Auntie Hermione called after her son "Come back here; you haven't greeted your Uncle and Auntie or cousins..."

"Hermione, no offense, but I think your son has an attention span to match Ron's emotional range." Dad grinned and the other two burst out laughing. Mum made the chit-chat as she ushered them in to the kitchen, pouring the tea as Hermione told her about how her SBHT (Society for Better House-elf Treatment) movement was going and how clumsy Uncle Ron was, which he protested against. Then suddenly, the conversation was broken by a loud squealing from outside, which was followed by a BANG! We were all silent until Mum said,

"Ronald...something tells me our older brother just might have arrived?"

"No?!" Uncle Ron replied with sarcasm dripping off his words like sweet honey, but I had already jumped to my feet and ran out of the door to tackle the person that had just apparated there in a hug.

"Woah! Good to see you too, James!" Uncle George hugged me back and looked up at the firework he had released into the sky, which was dancing.

"George Weasley!" Mum stood in the doorway, pretending to be angry. "Do you _have_ to make such an entrance every single time?"

"Just testing out new products, little sister." Uncle George gave his usual response as I dragged him inside, where everyone greeted him enthusiastically.

"George, can I ask you to ban my sons from your shop yet?" Dad asked. "There's enough chaos around without them getting hold of your fireworks as well!"

"Hey! That's not fair!" Albus and I protested fiercely.

"Something tells me that nothing's going to keep these two from trouble." Uncle George chuckled, then added slyly "But they must take after someone, and Ginny's not one to get into trouble much, is she...?"

"All right, all right, I get the message!" Dad laughed. Then Mum waved her wand and the table filled with the food she'd made. Unsurprisingly, Uncle Ron dived in for the chicken at once and then as Mum called in my sister and cousin, Dad caused a commotion by sneezing...and tiny green snakes flew through his hands. Auntie Hermione gave a small cry of shock, Al nearly fell of his chair, and Uncle Ron exclaimed,

"Bloody H*ll!"

"Ron! Language!" Mum told him off, because Lily and Hugo had just come in. I looked immediately to my right, and Uncle George winked at me, half-smiling.

"George, do you really have to test out things like that here?" Auntie Hermione asked weakly, not even needing to question if it was his fault.

"Hey, it is a fairly old product now!" Uncle George replied as he hugged Lily and Hugo and our small party continued with food and more chatter than even I could keep up with, but my mind was wandering and I couldn't concentrate. What was that piece of paper that was now in my pocket? Should I have stolen it? Why was it there?

Much later, I was in my room, alone. Dad, Aunt Hermione, Mum and Uncle Ron were having one of their "Remember old so-and-so" and "Remember when this funny thing happened" conversations, and Uncle George was goofing around outside with Lily, Hugo and Albus. I, meanwhile, was pouring over the parchment. Even though I had tried everything, it still showed nothing and I was beginning to wonder whether it was, just, a blank parchment and I was making a fuss over nothing. But still, something kept urging me to try another way.

"You've found your grandfather's map, I see." I jumped and turned round to see Uncle George looking over my shoulder at the parchment as if he could see things on it I couldn't.

"What?" I asked, staring back down at the blank paper "This...it's just a piece of parchment, isn't it?" Uncle George chuckled

"You sound like your dad." He said, sitting next to me "That's nearly exactly what he said when we gave this to him."

"I don't understand." I was confused. Uncle George pulled out his wand, tapped the paper, and said,

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Almost immediately, lines spread like spider webs from where his wand had been and formed letters, surrounded by a twirly, intricate boarder.

"The Marauders Map." I read, and opened it up. Inside was the most detailed map of Hogwarts I had ever seen and I was amazed "Wow..."

"And check _this_ out." Uncle George pointed to a point of the map which was moving and I looked closer to see that underneath it were the words "Peeves". Then he pointed out Filch in the third corridor, and Neville in the greenhouses.

"So this map shows everyone? Wherever they are in Hogwarts?"

"And more." Uncle George pointed out a few of the secret passageways, as well as warning me about which ones were blocked, or not worth going through. Then I remembered what he had said earlier.

"You said _you_ gave this to Dad?" I stared in admiration at him, but I noticed that his smile was ever-so-slightly forced.

"Me and Fred did, back in our 5th year. Harry wanted to get to Hogsmede but he didn't have a permission slip, so we took pity on him. Gave him this. Turned out more useful than we ever could have thought." He told me and I felt slightly awkward, but his smile soon solidified and he went on, "But one thing your dad found out that even we didn't know is who these four were." He pointed at the four names signed at the bottom of the map: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

"Padfoot..." I mused. Where had I heard that before?

"Sirius Black." Uncle George smiled.

"Wait...as in my dad's godfather? The one I'm named after?" I gaped.

"The very same." My uncle pointed to Prongs. "And Prongs is none other than James Potter, your grandfather." I was speechless.

"He made this?"

"He-and the others-did." Uncle George went on, "Moony is Remus Lupin,"

"Teddy's dad?" I asked

"Yeah. He was absolutely fantastic. Then there's Wormtail." Uncle George's face changed into disgust "_He's_ not worth remembering."

My stomough plunged as I remembered where I had heard _that_ name before.

"Peter Pettigrew." I whispered. "The...the man that...betrayed Dad's parents."

"I'm afraid so." My uncle nodded.

"But why on earth would he be here?" I scowled at the hateful name and Uncle George sighed.

"Because they used to be friends, James." He said "These four, the Marauders, were all friends at school, good friends. But then Wormtail went bad, joined Voldemort, betrayed your dad's parents, got Sirius blamed for it and...well, you've probably heard the rest a million times." He nearly smiled at that.

"Oh, only a million and one times!" I replied, grinning up at him. "Do you reckon Dad'll be mad if I keep this?" Uncle George got to his feet as the sound of Hugo calling him reached us and gave me his mischievous wink.

"Only if he doesn't find out!" He whispered loudly, then started to head out. Just before he closed the door, Uncle George looked back at me. "Look after that map, James. It means a lot to all those who've had it."

"I will, I promise."


End file.
